


La Danse Macabre

by TheMoonMoths



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fuck Or Die, Loss of Virginity, Smut, and it's not in the mood to play games, it is the spooky season and it's pissed off, the force is basically destiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 20:34:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21259238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMoonMoths/pseuds/TheMoonMoths
Summary: The bits and pieces were positioned as letters, forming a message spelled in red thread.There is but one way out, beware,Released are only those who dare,You have till midnight to decide,Whether you want to fuck or die.A lengthy silence ensued as both of them just stood there, staring at the crude poem."Okay, this isobviouslya joke, right?" Ben asked, flabbergasted."Right," Rey agreed feebly and tried to put on a brave face. "We’re leaving."---In which Ben and Rey get lost in the woods and end up trapped inside a haunted cabin. They can only leave under one condition.





	La Danse Macabre

**Author's Note:**

  * For [midnightbluefox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightbluefox/gifts).

> This is for a prompt requested by the lovely [midnightbluefox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightbluefox/pseuds/midnightbluefox). I ever so slightly modified it, but I really hope you'll enjoy it anyway. ❤️
> 
> Also, the biggest of thanks to [MyJediLife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyJediLife/pseuds/MyJediLife) for being an amazing beta.

Two full moons shone before her — one in the clear, black sky above, and its distorted sibling in the rippling water below. At the end of a shabby, wooden pier stood Rey, her hands toying with the small arsenal of pebbles in her trenchcoat’s pockets. She launched one in the air, and watched dispassionately as it pierced through the faint shroud of mist and landed in the water with a deep splash, sending a fresh flutter of waves across the lake. Another one followed not long after, and then some more, the high-pitched sound of their plunging loud enough to sporadically drown out the low, distant reverberations of music coming from the lodge. Rey wasn’t aiming for anything in particular, or even attempting to skip stones. She had settled in a trance, throwing the stones and watching them get swallowed by the water, only to do it again, and again, and again. 

It was a drab night, and a cold one at that. A gust of wind rustled the surrounding forest, the few remaining leaves chattering amongst themselves like gossiping school-children. Rey shivered, and put more force into throwing the next pebble, watching as it nearly hit the pale-yellow patch in the shimmering water. Even the moon seemed to be mocking her tonight — swaying in waves without a care in the world, laughing at her from a safe distance. She huffed and reached into her pockets once more. Only one pebble remained, so she had to make it count. Rey held her breath and carefully lined up her next throw when a sound, coming from the thick undergrowth behind her, threw her off focus.

It was a faint rustle, growing louder as it approached, a crunch of leaves and a snapping of twigs. Rey lowered her hand, though without turning around, knowing that there would only be one person brazen enough to follow her out here, stubborn enough to refuse to take a hint. She braced herself. Eventually, the sounds of battle against the invasive forest were replaced by footsteps, and then the groan of soggy planks under the added strain. 

She stood there, still not turning around, still clutching the pebble, shivering, _ seething _.

"Did nobody ever teach you that it’s bad manners to leave your plus one unattended with a group of strangers?" a voice spoke behind her, dusky and low, and the last thing she wanted to hear at the moment.

Rey whipped around, her ponytail whizzing in the air. "As far as I’m aware, that rule only applies to plus ones who are capable of behaving." 

"I was _ provoked _," Ben contended, wincing as he brushed away a few stowaway twigs clinging to his blazer. There was also a leaf stuck in his hair, an orange, involuntary ornament in the smooth strands of black, but Rey found it only appropriate not to bring any attention to that. It was the least she could do. He went on, still removing any evidence of coming into contact with nature. "They just had to keep slandering FOC right in front of me, the whistleblower most of all. What was I supposed to do, just sit there and take it?"

"You could refer to Finn by his name, for starters," she grumbled, feeling the beginnings of a headache starting to prick at the back of her eyes. This was supposed to have been a fun, careless night, spent far away from any troubles and with everyone she held dear. Instead, she had spent a large portion of it out here, throwing rocks into a lake as her— plus one - acted like a cornered wolf and picked a fight with the entire room, upbeat dance music blasting in the background with blissful ignorance the likes of which she could only dream of. 

"What did you think was gonna happen, exactly? That I travel all this way out to fucking _ Maryland _, by the way, and we would all suddenly be best friends? Don’t be naive."

"Why did you come at all, then?" she asked, trying her hardest to keep her voice from breaking.

Ben blinked, his eyes as bottomless as the lake in the permeating darkness, his tall silhouette framed by the warm, welcoming lights of the cottage shining through the dense thicket of trees.

"I came because you asked me to," he answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Rey had nothing to say to that. 

They had met — perhaps not the most accurate wording — first _ interacted _ during a demonstration in front of the First Order Corporation headquarters. Rey and Finn had spotted him giving the protesters an abhorred side-eye before disappearing through the revolving door. They had both exchanged a look and dashed after him, and what followed was a hissing match of insults while a stunned receptionist observed the scene with a look of amazement, her finger on the security button. In the end, though, Ben waved her off impatiently, and retreated back into the safety nest of the skyscraper. Things only got weirder from there. 

Starting from the very next day, in the most bizarre string of coincidences that had ever befallen Rey in her entire life, she suddenly saw him _ everywhere _ . The coffee shop where she got her mocha every morning? He was there, standing in line in front of her, eyes glued to the menu, spitefully ignoring her. The next day, at the supermarket, they met once again, exchanged a glance of suspicious disbelief and went on their separate ways. Then at the dentist’s office, passing each other on the street, every single _ day _until eventually their defenses crumbled, and they got to talking.

Rey began to notice that Ben was always by himself, and that when he wasn’t wearing a meticulously crafted mask of haughty indifference, he looked almost— sad. Then they ran into each other in the park, at the gym, and then again on the street, and really started _ talking. _Before she knew it, Rey found herself tossing and turning at night, thoughts of him fluttering around her like moths circling a lamppost, and she learned that he hated sweets, that horror movies made him laugh, that he’d managed to kill a cactus by forgetting he owned it for six months. The sleepless nights turned into late-night texting sessions, and she found out that he grew out his hair to cover his ears, that he blamed himself for his parents’ divorce, and that, yes, he knew what it was like to feel lonely, too.

That was when she took it upon herself to take an enormous leap of faith and invite him to Poe’s annual fall getaway in his parents’ lodge deep in the Maryland woods, _ knowing _ that it was a terrible mistake. And yet, he had accepted right away. The rest of her Resistance Front family had to have dreaded the very prospect of having to spend a weekend with the infamous FOC prodigy. And yet, bless them, they held their tongues, faked their smiles and lied that it wouldn’t be that bad, that maybe whatever Reay saw in him, they would see, too. And yet... 

He had _ sauntered _ into the lodge, almost comically over-dressed, a bottle of wine in hand, only to freeze in the doorway, staring at the amused faces of her friends as if he had walked in on a murder scene. Things had only gone downhill from there. 

In the odd vacuum that had been their budding friendship, Rey had been lulled into forgetting how crass he could be, how quickly his temper could ignite from even the most minute spark. For a while, she had almost begun to dream about blossoms of tantalizing what ifs, all of which were now wilting before her very eyes.

"Whatever," she grumbled, turning around to face the lake again and taking out the last stone from her pocket. "You can leave if you want, nobody’s keeping you a prisoner."

"I thought—" his voice wavered, uncertain. "I thought this evening would go very differently, that’s all."

"Yeah," Rey agreed, hurling the pebble at the lake as if her life depended on it. "I wish we were on the same page, just _ once _."

They both watched silently as it flew in a straight line, way farther than ever before, so far that Rey almost expected it to pass the entire lake and whiz into the forest, but it didn’t. The pebble landed dead-centre in the moon’s reflection, a menacing crackle sending concentric circles of pale-yellow waves over the inky water.

It was as if the second the stone came into contact with the moon-shaped smear, the very air around them became _ wrong, _the clean crispness of it, the smell of leaves, and moss, and ground itself turned still and lifeless, like it was but a wax figure pretending to be the real thing. A chill ran through Rey’s spine, and she felt the minute hairs at the back of her neck raise, an autonomous response to something beyond her immediate perception.

"Can you feel that?" she asked, slowly backing away, eyes scanning the forest line around the coast, finding nothing but unmoving trees. 

"Yeah," Ben said, sounding tense. "Let’s go back inside."

Rey nodded, but didn’t turn around. Something else had caught her attention, but it wasn’t the forest. There, in the spot where the pebble had landed, the water was still rippling, though not due to some last echoes of waves. No, it was rippling with unfaltering force, rippling and _ churning _.

As if something was there.

Rey backed right into him, and blindly reached behind her to grab at whatever piece of fabric — or him — she could reach, ending up with a fistful of his blazer. 

"We need to move," she urged, not daring to blink. "Now. There’s something in the water—"

"Rey," he wasn’t listening, and her head whipped around. Ben was looking in the other direction, to the lodge, except—

"Did the power just go out?" He stood there, frowning. "I can't see the lights anymore."

Her hand dug deeper into the lapels of his blazer, and he looked down on her in silent confusion. In front of them was nothing but a black expanse of trees, the sparkling lights of the cottage, their guiding beacon home, not there anymore. What had previously been a measly thicket of trees now loomed in front of them, pitch-black depths gaping like a hungered jungle. But it was merely an optical illusion. Everything looked bigger, more threatening in the dark, she knew that. 

"That’s no matter," Rey said, using her leverage to slightly prod him onwards. "The lodge is straight up ahead, just through the trees. We can’t miss it."

"I know, it’s just— odd timing." He looked around, uncomfortable for the same inexplicable reason that she was.

"Which is why we need to move," she urged for what felt like the fifth time, and let go of him. Rey started to scurry down the pier — if he wanted to linger and look around, that was his problem. Her plan was to live through the night, preferably behind the safety of four thick walls, where she could laugh with her friends about how freaked out they’d both been about what turned out to be nothing.

When she came to the tree line, her hand shot down to the back pocket of her jeans, searching for a familiar weight, but her fingers fumbled around nothing, and Rey realized the mistake she’d made. 

"Shit," she cursed under her breath, and looked at him. "I left my phone inside, do you have yours?"

That snapped Ben out of whatever transfixed state he seemed to be in, and he patted himself down hastily, eventually finding the device in the front pocket of his pants. "I have it." Ben confirmed as he unlocked the phone, wincing at the bright screen. "No signal, though. Shall we?"

Rey gave a quick, eager nod. He overtook her and turned on the flashlight; the immediate area around lit up with harsh, white light, each bare shrub and sapling casting a stark shadow. The pair set off into the trees, with Rey still stealing glances over her shoulder, until the lake largely disappeared from view. As the thicket closed in behind them, the last glimpse she could catch was the mist, not the dainty thing that it had been before, but thick and bulbous, oozing out onto the shore. 

With the sullen body of water out of sight, Rey's mind felt clearer, and she tried to apply logic to what she had just seen. Many things could have caused it to ripple the way it did, be it an overgrown fish or a beaver with a penchant for night swimming. But no matter what she told herself, the sense of unease persevered, trailing her like a shadow. 

They fought their way through the tenacious undergrowth, with only the sound of snapping and crackling of twigs for company. The sight of Ben impatiently swatting away stubborn branches would usually be more than enough to coax a smile out of her, but tonight was too heavy, too suffocating for even such fleeting joys. 

The line of brush eventually gave way to the woodland, and the root-latticed ground turned into damp, elastic moss. Traversal became easier, but also quieter. The pair went onwards, and Rey kept her eyes glued to the patch of darkness where the horizon should be, hoping to catch the outlines of the lodge emerging from the shadows. The more they walked, though, the more pressing the silence seemed to be become, the all-enveloping night somehow sweepingly grand and claustrophobic at the same time. 

"How do you like this place?" she found herself inquiring, just to create something for her bored ears to do. 

"Right now? I’d burn down the whole damn forest down if I could," Ben said, holding up a branch for Rey to duck under. As their eyes met, however, the line of his mouth somewhat softened. "But the lodge itself has potential. Have you been here already?"

"A couple of times." As Rey passed him, she saw a glint of something akin to suspicion in his eyes, and felt she had to clarify. "Poe throws this thing every October to somewhat mixed results. I think last year we got so drunk that none of us even made it to midnight."

"What happens at midnight?" Ben asked, catching up to her so they could walk side by side now that the terrain was permitting. 

Rey shrugged. "Nothing, I guess, just the start of a new day. I've always felt like new beginnings should be respected, don't you?"

"I suppose so," he said, somewhat curbing his pace so that Rey would have a chance to keep up with his long legs. "Though I personally think that new beginnings are what we make for ourselves. Relying on an artificial construct to make them for you feels like cheating, almost like eliminating your own agency."

"I take it you’re not a big fan of Valentine’s day, then?" Rey bumped her shoulder against his, and Ben replied with a small, enigmatic smile. She would’ve returned it, the gloomy night be damned, if the flickering beam of flashlight hadn’t momentarily shot up, revealing— more trees in front of them, nothing but a silent boneyard of oaks, maples and hickories stretching in all directions, disappearing into the darkness.

Rey stopped dead in her tracks, and Ben followed suit, looking at her quizzically.

"What is it?" he asked, eyes scanning the surroundings for any signs of danger. But that was the thing — there was nothing there.

"Ben," she said, lowering her voice without knowing why. "We’ve been walking for a good ten minutes."

The lodge was not that far from the pier, a two minute walk at most. Even accounting for their slower pace, there was absolutely no way the route should take that long. Ben's jaw set the moment the same realization reached his eyes. "How is that possible? We’ve been going in a straight line this entire time; the thicket wasn’t even that _ big _. The lodge was right near the—"

"The watchtower, I know," Rey bit her lip, looking up at the sky, which now glowed in a strange, poisonous shade of purple she’d never seen before, the moon leering down on them like a red gash. "It doesn’t make any sense at all."

"So now what?" Ben asked, shining the light around in vain hopes of spotting the clearing with the lodge, as if it was a skittish deer that could spring out from behind a tree at any moment. "Should we backtrack?"

Rey shook her head, the thought of going back to the shore making her stomach clench in dread. Ben growled and kicked a nearby tree, sending bits of moss-covered bark flying through the air.

"I _ hate _ this fucking forest."

Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted, and it sounded like an echoed, sympathetic elegy. 

* * *

They had been at it for about an hour — or at least what _ felt _ like an hour — wandering around in a half-hearted attempt to stick to a course, though it felt like a largely futile effort to hold their own against the cursed currents of the night. The pair tried to keep a light small-talk going, just to steer their thoughts away from any unwelcome directions, but all conversation threads seemed to sizzle out and die the moment they reached the lifeless air. Eventually, they gave up trying to do even that, opting to walk silently and contemplate on how it had all gone so wrong, so fast. Rey almost wished she was back in the lodge, silently fuming while Ben was making the rounds of picking a fight with every single one of her friends. At least inside there had been alcohol. 

Rey was swinging around a stick she’d found on the ground, twirling it in her hands, and Ben, much to her annoyance, now kept a safe distance. _ What are you going to do with it _ , he’d asked. _ Poke your eye out? _ And she had wanted to reply with _ I’ll poke you with it if you don’t shut up _, but, unlike him, she knew how to hold her tongue. At least that one, mischievous leaf was still in his hair, and that was about the only thing she still had going for her. 

The scenery around them was almost unchanging, a mum, characterless conveyor of trees sliding past, with not another being, flying or crawling, in sight. Then, another strike of misfortune hit. Ben checked his phone, the harsh light sharpening his already angular features, and grimaced. The flashlight was switched off before Rey could stop him, and just like that the darkness spilled all over them, and the night became a third member of the miserable party.

"Why?" she whined, drawing nearer to him so they wouldn’t lose each other. 

"Battery’s low. Have to preserve some for an emergency."

Rey hissed a curse and blindly stumbled right into his chest. In an instant, his arms wrapped around her, and she slid her own underneath his blazer — an instinctive, desperate attempt to extract some semblance of comfort. 

"This _ is _ an emergency," she muttered against him, pressed tight and unwilling to move. 

"It’s fine," Ben crooned in that soft, velveteen voice she’d only ever heard him use with her. "Our eyes will adjust soon."

Rey nodded, somewhat reluctantly let go, and they set off once again, this time slower and with more stumbling into random foliage. Their night vision did kick in eventually, after a while they could even distinguish individual trees under the purple moonlight curling through the canopy, but not much else. Rey tried desperately not to think about the fact that she could feel the back of her neck prickle as if someone was watching their every step.

It was odd— for all intents and purposes they were hopelessly lost. In fact, they were probably moving away from the lodge with every step they took, and they both were aware of that. But they persisted, and the more distance they covered, the more it felt like they weren’t wandering aimlessly at all, but were being pulled by an invisible force towards something already waiting in the dark. It felt inevitable, and Rey knew that like she knew her own name, like she knew that it didn’t matter in which direction they went, because, sooner or later, they would reach it anyway.

They trudged onwards, this time shoulder to shoulder. Whatever was awaiting their arrival, at least they would face it together. This time it was Ben who broke the contemplative silence, and Rey cringed at the sound of his voice, not because she wasn’t happy to hear it, but because it now felt out-of-place, like speaking up in a church.

"Why did you invite me here?" he asked cautiously, but without any malice.

"Because," Rey said, surprised, "you’re my friend, aren’t you?"

"But you knew this could end in disaster."

She gave a small shrug. "Everything can always end in disaster. If people only focused on the worst case scenarios, nothing would ever get done." Ben hummed in faint agreement, and said nothing more on the matter. But Rey's curiosity was peaked now, and she pressed the subject further.

"What set you off so bad?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you arrived, it took you one look around to completely fly off the handle. Why?"

"Huh?" Ben blinked, and turned his head to look at her, frowning. "Isn’t that obvious?"

Now it was her turn to be confused, and he took note of her hesitation with a short, mirthless laugh. 

"I didn’t expect anyone else to be there," he explained, and Rey stopped dead in her tracks.  
  
" _ What _?"

Ben turned his head, saw that she’d halted and did so himself, crossing his arms. 

"I thought it would be—" his voice faltered, "just the two of us for the entire weekend, but then I saw all of your friends there, and realized the mistake I'd made."

Rey stood flabbergasted. The implications of that statement didn’t fail to warm her chest up with a soft bloom, and she’d be lying if that scenario didn’t hold an appeal, but, quickly sorting through her memories, she could not make heads or tails of how he’d managed to come to that particular conclusion. "I said it was a weekend retreat at Poe’s lodge. What do you think that means?"

"Something very different than you, clearly," he drawled, and now Rey _ did _ want to laugh.

"_ Poe’s _ lodge, as in the property belongs to _ him. _ Well, technically it belongs to his parents, but still—"

"Yes, and I assumed that he’d let you use it, not that he would be _ in _ it. You never mentioned the RF being there, not _ once _." 

"God," Rey covered her face with her hands to stifle an eruption of crazed, hysterical laughter. It all made sense now. "You are _ impossible _." 

"Am I?" Ben’s fists clenched at his sides. "Was it really so— _ wrong _ of me to assume that it would be just the two of us?"

It took considerable effort to look into his eyes, but when she did, Rey saw nothing but dark depths of hurt reflected within them. She wasn’t a fool, she knew what he wanted, and— it had certainly played a part in why he’d been invited. In her mind, a party in a remote location seemed like the perfect place for either of them to make a move, figure out where they stand. Whatever they had was still too new, too raw. Their relationship needed time to ferment, and they had— plenty of that. Or so Rey had thought.

"No, it wasn’t wrong," Rey said, as softly as she could, "but it would have been a bit too much, too fast. I—"

The words were stuck somewhere in her throat, refusing to leave with a near spiteful defiance. Ben raised his eyebrows in a silent question, and she felt a flush of warmth turn her cheeks red. This was _ not _ the place to have this conversation. They hadn’t even gone on a proper _ date — _this one did not count.

"I’ve never—" Rey shifted uncomfortably, "you know."

Ben almost visibly recoiled as the realization dawned on his lean, overly expressive face, and he looked her over as if seeing her for the first time. Rey did not like that one bit, it made her feel self-conscious.

"Never?" he finally asked, incredulous.

"No."

"Oh," he said awkwardly, and Rey almost wished that whatever was following them would finally make an appearance just to save her from the rest of this conversation. 

But she was in luck, for neither of them had anything more to say, and the pair set off once again, diving shoulder to shoulder deeper into the bottomless night. The conversation dwindled after that, like dying embers that flickered one last time before extinguishing, and the air grew increasingly tense. Rey could feel that whatever they were supposed to find was coming up soon, and it filled her with cold dread, but also a strange sense of solemnity. It meant that whatever was to happen, it would all finally come to an end. For the moment, it was all she could ask for. 

A crackle came from somewhere next to her, sudden, and brutal, and so loud after the extended silence. Rey panicked, and her frenzied, free hand immediately found itself in his. 

"Sorry," Ben said, completely unruffled by the sound. "I think I stepped on a twig."

Rey let out a deep breath, her heart beating wildly somewhere around her throat, and felt him give her hand a short, reassuring squeeze. It was a soft, warm reprieve from the harsh night, so that was where hers remained. Where it felt safe. 

* * *

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, and Rey didn’t want to ask. The only thing she knew was that the terrain was slowly beginning to change, the even, mossy ground giving way to increasingly persistent slopes. Her boots were soaked through, muscles in her legs aching, hand still clasping his as if this was but a lazy afternoon stroll around the park. A borderline comical comfort, considering the dire circumstances, but it was enough to keep them going. Rey kept glancing up towards the treetops, hoping that, with the rising ground, the watchtower would eventually swim into view, but the night was dim and oddly starless, and their guiding beacon home was nowhere to be seen.

"What will you do when we get back?" Ben asked, interrupting Rey’s transfixed staring at the purple-stained sky.

"I’m going to have a nice, hot bath." Just the idea alone made her strikingly more aware of how wet and freezing she was, and Rey suddenly had to grit her teeth to stop them from chattering. Next to her, Ben hummed in agreement. "What about you?"

"Grab a drink and pass out, most probably," he said. "Though a bath _ does _ sound like a very good idea."

The flirtatious comment she was about to make died on her tongue as they both halted. Rey swallowed, and grasped his hand tighter. The black mass in front of them, the same one she had previously written off as simply more darkness, turned out to be a steep hill, much bigger than any they had crossed before. Right before the pair, here, in the middle of absolutely_ nowhere _, were stairs, the wet, half-rotten wood gleaming in the moonlight, beckoning them to climb it. 

_ This was it _, Rey thought, and tried to crane her neck to see what awaited them at the top, but to no avail. It was too dark. She could barely see Ben, and he was right next to her. He looked solemn, but fearless, mouth drawn into a tight line and eyes burning with determination.

"Let’s move," he muttered, giving her hand a last, reassuring squeeze and letting go. Rey discarded the stick, and reached up to pluck the leaf out of his hair. 

They began their ascent, with her following close on Ben’s heels. The stairs went up in a straight line at first, but took a sharp turn to the right not long after, and the progress was slow — Rey had to hold on to the shabby railing to avoid falling down the slippery steps. Her anxiety mounted in unison with them mounting the hill, and then, all too soon, they reached the top, and a large, looming shape slowly began to form in the darkness.

What awaited them was something between a cabin and a shack. It was an old wooden thing, held together by not much more than a couple of nails and a prayer, but the walls were made out of thick, sturdy logs, and from the looks of the dirt-caked windows, there even seemed to be a second floor. And the _ door _— it was massive, more fitting for a modest church than a cabin in the woods, with elaborate wrought iron ornaments that spanned the dark panelling like vines, twisting and turning in a chaotic pattern. Rey’s eyes shot up, looking for any signs of smoke coming from the chimney, and found none. The shack seemed long abandoned, but she still found herself lingering at the top of the stairs, hesitant to approach. There was something— off about the juxtaposition of the grand entrance compared to the rest of the grimy exterior. 

Ben, however, had no such qualms. He strolled over to the door like he owned the place, looked at it, looked back at her_ , _and before she had any time to react, banged on it three times. Rey held her breath as Ben pressed his forehead to the wrought iron pattern, listening for any signs of movement. A long minute passed while they stood there, tense and expectant, then another one. Nothing happened.

Rey relaxed and let out a deep breath. It was safe. _ They _ were safe. Ben did not hesitate any longer, and proceeded to turn the doorknob with an infuriatingly smug look on his face.

"After you," he crooned, holding the door open. 

There was no other choice but to enter, even if it was just to show him that she wasn’t scaacred. Besides, Rey was freezing, and the opportunity to finally hunker down for the night was simply too good to pass on. 

They went inside. The floors could do with some thorough sweeping, and the window panes were begging for a wash, but those were all good signs, indications that nobody had set foot inside the cabin for years. Rey circled the room, her heart lighter than it had any reason to be, and took note of the surroundings. Some of the furniture was still there, and in semi-decent shape — Rey spotted an old, rusted stove with a chair next to it, some stairs leading up to the second floor, and in the corner of the room, next to the fireplace was a bed with a blanket still on it. As modest as they come, but more than enough for a night. They could make this work. 

"I wonder who lived here," Rey pondered, walking up to, by far, the most tempting prospect of the cabin — the fireplace. She took note of some kindling and a couple of logs stacked neatly next to it. Their luck seemed to have finally begun turning around. 

"I don’t know, and I don’t care," Ben said, taking off his blazer and tossing it onto the chair. "We can wait out here until the morning, that’s all that matters."

Rey hummed in agreement, and shivered at the cold draft coming through the still open door. Ben went over to close it. He had barely touched the heavy door, only given it but a tiny push—

It slammed shut. 

"Interesting," Ben remarked, and Rey could barely hear him over the ringing in her ears. He tilted his head to examine the hinges up close. "It must have some sort of a closing mechanism."

She didn’t find that interesting at all, and went around the room once more, this time searching every nook and cranny for anything of use. She ended up scavenging nothing save for an old box of matches with a faded label, but it was enough for her to move onto the next task. They set off to work in silence, Rey lighting a fire, and Ben diligently shaking out the dust from the blanket. 

Soon enough, the room was dancing in a warm, flickering glow, and the return of both the light and the warmth set the pair at somewhat of an ease. Rey was sitting in front of the fireplace, legs tucked underneath her and looking at the flame. The act of placing the kindling in a grid, positioning the logs evenly on top and fidgeting around with the matches had brought back many an unwelcome memory of a childhood where this had been a part of an evening routine. She put her arms around her knees, lost to a dark place, when she felt something heavy and a little scratchy being placed on her. Rey looked up and saw Ben, who’d draped the blanket around her shoulders. 

"You’re good at that," he noted, nodding towards the fire and settling down next to her. 

She said nothing, and continued staring at the flame solemnly, watching it lick away at the wood. 

"Hey," he cooed, nudging his shoulder against hers. "It’s going to be okay. We’ll get out of here in the morning and find our way back."

Rey met his eyes, saw the warm light reflecting within them, how his irises seemed to glow with molten gold, and decided that she was tired of feeling lost.

She kissed him on a whim, but what a sweet whim it was, and marveled at how plush, how impossibly soft his lips felt against hers. Ben was caught off-guard, not reacting to it right away, but she didn’t care, continuing on until she felt his large hand cup her cheek as he started kissing her back. It was a desperate little rebellion, a puny act of defiance against an all too ruthless destiny. She slanted her head to deepen the kiss, parting his mouth with hers. They tasted each other, timidly at first, but growing bolder with each brush of her tongue against his. It was a high that left her feeling dizzy, alive, and wanting more.

It was over all too soon.

He placed one last peck on her lips like a promise, eyes shining with contentment, and pulled away, gracing her with one of _ those _ smiles, pure, and dimpled, and as warming as the fire.

"Right idea, wrong place," Ben said, his smile turning wistful. "We were supposed to do this back at the lodge, and there was supposed to be wine. Not here, in this— hut."

He was being so open, so painfully _ sincere _ that it almost broke her heart, and it took a conscious effort not to ambush his lips once again. She settled on clearing her throat instead. 

"First of all, this is, at worst, a shack_ . _ And it's not _ that _ bad. I’ve seen worse."

"It is foul," he persisted, "and you deserve better. I want us to take it slow, make it count. We’ll get back, pretend this didn’t happen, and redo it once we’re no longer wet and miserable."

There was some truth to what he said — the shack did not exactly scream _ first date material, _ and here, bathed in the warm, dancing light, it was easier to feel optimistic and believe that they would indeed find their way back in the morning. She would have preferred to pass the evening making out, but perhaps the right course of action truly was simply going to sleep and letting the accursed night finally come to a long overdue close.

"What time is it, anyway?" Rey asked as she stretched, and her spine cracked with a satisfying pop. 

Ben scooped out his phone from the back pocket of his pants and glanced at the screen. "Almost eleven."

"What?" Her brow furrowed. "That cannot be right, we were wandering around for hours—"

A loud crash came from the second floor, making them both jump. It was sharp, a shattering of glass, followed by some scraping, as if something had smashed right through the window, sending bits of it scattering against the floor. Rey scrambled to her feet, heart pounding in her chest, and Ben shot up, too, his face not showing even the slightest shadow of fear, but stone cold _ fury _. 

"I’m so _ sick _ of this fucking forest," he hissed, storming over to the bottom of the staircase. 

Rey moved to follow him, but he gave her a deadly look that left no room for negotiation. 

"Stay there!" he barked and disappeared up the stairs.

Rey huffed and dashed right after him.

She found him frozen at the top of the staircase, flashlight revealing—

Red. 

Rey instinctively recoiled, her first instincts screaming that it was blood, and intestines thrown around the room from what looked like an explosion, that they needed to _ go _, but, upon a closer look—

"What the hell?" 

Thread. Red thread, all over. Bits and pieces of it, and entire spools of it thrown haphazardly over the floor. Some of it stuck to the walls, somehow, even the ceiling, some stretching across the length of the room, connecting random parts of the floor not unlike a chaotic laser grid. It was _ everywhere, _some parts tangled, some not, and Rey didn’t even know where to look, her eyes darting everywhere at once. It was a complete visual assault, too much and too bright, oddly transfixing in its messiness. The very centre of the room was left mostly untouched, forming something of a path from the stairway to the window. They both walked it slowly, in search for an explanation.

"Look!" Rey yanked at his sleeve, and Ben followed her gaze. "The window."

There was nothing exceptional about it, and that was the problem. The window was completely untouched, all the glass still there with no evidence of anyone, _ anything _ as much as having scraped it. Whatever had happened here, wasn’t— natural, wasn’t rational, which meant that they had to stop pretending that this was but an ordinary, albeit unfortunate, night. That they were still in control. She heard Ben groan. He must have come to the same conclusion.

"We may need to get out of here after all, I don’t want to sleep under someone’s deranged art project," he tried to quip, but Rey was in no mood for jokes. Her eyes had stopped at something at the end of the path, something on the floor, illuminated by the moonlight curling through the window.

The bits and pieces were positioned as letters, forming a message spelled in red thread.

_There is but one way out, beware,_

_Released are only those who dare,_

_You have till midnight to decide,_

_Whether you want to fuck or die._

A lengthy silence ensued as both of them just stood there, staring at the crude poem. 

"Okay, this is _ obviously _ a joke, right?" Ben asked, flabbergasted. 

"Right," Rey agreed feebly and tried to put on a brave face. "We’re leaving."

If only. The first thing they tried was the door. It wouldn’t open, of course. They tried their best at pushing it, putting as much force into it as they could, but no matter how hard they tried, it wouldn’t budge. It was as if the cursed thing had been sealed shut, refusing to open for even an inch. So they tried something else, moving frantically to both save time _ and _to avoid discussing the contents of the message. Rey tried not to think about it herself, it was all too— much for her to handle at the moment.

The next and only other escape route left was through the windows. As soon as Rey had voiced the idea out loud, Ben had immediately volunteered to break one with perhaps a tad too much enthusiasm. She turned to face the wall, not wanting to get any bits of glass in her face, and listened as he lifted the chair, walked over to the window, and then—

A loud shattering, though, unlike the last time, it was a sound she relished. Rey turned back around and found Ben standing next to the window, his dusky eyes full of triumph as they trailed over the remains of the window panes on the floor that glistened like droplets of water.

"I could do this all day," he announced, leering at the other window as if tempted to break that one, too, just for good measure. 

"I’m sure you could," Rey smiled as she made her way towards him. 

"Mind the glass," he said, and she nodded, glancing down to step over— nothing.

She froze. The floor, littered with glistening specks of glass mere seconds ago, was now as empty as the moment they’d walked in. Her eyes shot towards the window. It was untouched. Rey walked over to it in a dazed state, more like a sleepwalker than someone awake, and it _ did _ feel like a dream. She pressed her palm against the glass pane, cold, and solid, and definitely _ there _.

"Ben," Rey muttered blankly, feeling like she was watching this scene unfold from somewhere very far away. "I think we might be in trouble." 

* * *

Rey had always considered time to be a curious thing. It went fast when she needed it to go slow, and slow when she needed it go fast, but she had never, not once, perceived the the very concept of its _ inevitability _ as acutely as she did now. Every second that passed set off a tiny alarm bell in her mind, and every minute made it louder. Soon, it would be the only thing she’d hear. Time was running out. 

The last ten minutes had been spent in near total silence, with Ben pacing around the room, periodically checking his phone, and Rey watching him dispassionately from where she had plopped down on the bed. Neither of them wanted to be the ones to break the silence, because it meant that they would have to address the monstrous elephant in the room. They only had around forty minutes left. But someone had to cave eventually. It ended up being Ben.

"There has to be another way out," he insisted, though to her ears it sounded more like a plea.

"I don’t think there is," Rey answered, surprising herself with how calm her voice was.

  
"Maybe we can try the other windows, or—"

"Or we could just do it."

The words had burst out of her without conscious input, flying out into the open like birds released from captivity, and it was as if the whole world froze around them, holding its breath. Ben stopped pacing and looked straight into her eyes. Rey had no idea why this was happening, why it was _ them _ it was happening to, what would happen at midnight — it was all too surreal to process, but the threat _ was _ there. Whatever they were dealing with was not joking around, and there didn’t seem to be much they could against its will. Maybe the answer had been there all along, the same conclusion she had come to at some point in the forest — to give in. 

"No."

"Why not?" She shook her head in rising agitation. "It’s either this or— death, apparently."

"Do you really believe that? What is the house gonna do, it’s all—" he hid his face in his hands, letting out a frustrated growl. "We’ll figure it out."

It still felt like a bad dream, something that she would wake up from at any moment. Maybe that was why she had no fear, only— annoyance. At him, specifically. For being such a stubborn mule.

"We don’t have _ time _ to figure it out!" she pressed and, in a bout of frustration, sprang up from the bed.

"Do I really have to say it out loud?" he hissed, growing increasingly defensive. "I’m not in the fucking mood for— that, okay_ ? _"

Rey crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, me neither, but we can— make it work, maybe."

"I said no."

"_ Why _?" She was becoming so riled up it was hard to see straight. How could he make this all about himself?

"Because this isn’t—" Ben’s voice was just a hair away from breaking. "This isn’t how it’s supposed to go down. Not here, not like— that, under the threat of _ death. _"

Rey had just about had enough of him, of this place, of this entire harrowing night, wanting nothing more than for all of this to be over. She stormed up to him, raising dust from the floor, and channeled all her fury into a bruising kiss. He was caught off-guard again, but recovered faster this time around, and his hand, just briefly, grazed her waist, but enough to send anticipatory shivers down her entire body. But he didn’t kiss her back. Just when she thought he was about to, his mouth parting almost against his will, Ben drew away with an odd look on his face.

"I do want to, you know," he confessed after a brief pause, and that took the wind right out of her sails, all the anger inside her deflating like a balloon as she looked into his cautious, pained eyes. "It’s just that—"

He cut himself off, and Rey had to coax him to continue. "What?"

"I hate not having agency," Ben declared. "My whole life has been about me making my own choices and dealing with the consequences. I can’t— let go like that."

"_Again_ with the agency thing—"

"What I mean is— I wanted us to do it on our own terms, and not in this— dumb hut."

It did make some sense, what he was saying. Ben was, after all, a person who would rather join the very company his mother’s organization was rallying against, and quickly proceed to climb the career ladder almost all the way to the top just to send a message. If someone pissed him off enough, he could probably become the president of the entire country out of sheer _ spite. _Rey could certainly imagine him dying here just to oppose a ghost’s wishes. But she was also here, and this was not the time to make a stand. 

"Create it, then." 

He shot her a quizzical look. 

Rey gave a small shrug in response. "Create your own agency. Let’s pretend that this is okay. That we’ll be okay."

"I can’t do that," he said, though Rey could tell that his resolve was beginning to crumble. She could practically feel the conflict in him, reflected in his eyes. Which meant that she was beginning to get through, and he just needed one last push.

"Sure you can," Rey reassured him, and when he _ still _didn’t move, she clasped his face in her hands.

"Ben," she urged, _ pleaded _. "I want you to."

That seemed to do the trick. He briefly closed his eyes, drawing a deep breath. When he opened them, she saw an uncharacteristic air of surrender that almost broke her heart. But there was something else there, too, something that made her instinctively tense up in anticipation. He kissed _ her _, a lot more tenderly than any of the times before, each brush of his lips against hers like a soft apology for what was to come.

She murmured feather-light encouragement against his mouth as he walked her backwards until the back of her knees hit the bed, and she let herself fall. Ben watched her scramble backwards to make room, let out a deep sigh and looked at his phone.

"Thirty minutes," he grumbled, tossing it onto the bed. "Also my battery is about to die."

"Okay, well, no need to fake _ that _ level of excitement, " Rey couldn’t help jibing, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Sometimes she almost forgot how attractive he was, especially in moments like this, when the curtains around his perpetual air of gloominess lifted to reveal a glimpse of something else. Something playful. Adoring, even. It lit up his face, all those sharp angles smoothing out to reveal a handsome type of rugged boyishness, and the line of his unfairly plush lips turning softer. 

"Are you _ sure _?" he asked, hopefully for the last time. "With it being your first time and everything—"

"I'm sure," she confirmed one last time. "Now, _ please _. Time is wasting."

Ben let out a defeated sigh and sat down on the bed next to her. "This is wrong on so many levels."

Then his lips found hers again, soft as ever, sliding across her own in a warm dance, but this time it felt— off. Warm as though it may be, the fire wasn’t there. Every kiss carried an aftertaste of urgency, necessity, and it was bitter, like they were putting on a performance, mechanically going through the motions with no substance to it at all, no feelings. It was a stinging reminder of where they were, and what they had to do, and the pair gave up not long after, both almost visibly relieved that it was over. 

"Not working," Rey said while the first twinges of panic began to prickle at her insides. "We did it better before."

"I wonder _ why _," Ben scoffed. "It’s almost like this is all fucked up and backwards—"

"Hey, Ben?" Rey interrupted him, injecting as much faux innocence into her voice as she could muster. "You know what _ isn't _ going to help? You, making snide remarks, so maybe you should consider sh—"

"You’re not exactly helping either, _ Christ _, Rey," he hissed over her, and took a moment to pull himself together as Rey glared daggers at him and tried to do the same. "I’m sorry. I’ll try to— focus."

  
"Okay, you know what? Close your eyes," she commanded, and saw Ben instantly comply. It was almost enough to coax a smile out of her. "Move further down the bed— yes, just like that—"

Rey watched as he scrambled backwards, still keeping his eyes shut. When his back hit the wall, it was her signal to pounce, and Rey swooped in to straddle his lap, slightly startling him. For all the bravado he seemed to possess, she found it quite endearing just how affected he always seemed to be by the tiniest ministration of hers. Emboldened by the revelation, she pressed on, leaning forward and whispering into his ear.

"Let’s try again, only this time we’ll pretend that we’re— anywhere else, and that we have all the time in the world, okay?"

He only gave a curt nod in response, his large frame rigid against her frailer one. It was by far the most scandalous position she’d ever been in with anyone. She had kissed before, a couple of times with random people that meant nothing at all, but allowing _ real _ intimacy had always been a boundary she was afraid to cross, knowing that it could lead to heartbreak, abandonment, everything that scared her more than death itself. This close, she could feel the scent of his skin — heady, and so _ him _ it made her light-headed, so Rey lingered there for a moment, soft, dark curls brushing against her nose, simply breathing him in.

Underneath her, Ben squirmed impatiently, a wordless little signal to hurry it up. That somewhat snapped Rey out of whatever she was doing, and made her swoop in for another kiss. This one felt— 

More insistent, more demanding, _ better, _ lips parting, and meeting, and clashing in a frenzied duel, and the kiss carried with it a spark of hope, brewing in the pit of her stomach, hope for a tomorrow where they could do this again. Now their tongues were playing a separate, frantic game, and suddenly it was all too much and not _ nearly _ enough, and she found herself squirming against him. Ben's hands wandered over to her waist, long fingers spanning across her ribs, caressing her with gentleness so at odds with their situation. Urgency, yes, it was still urgent, the way he pressed up against her was brimming with it, but—

But it was over again, both of them left slightly out of breath, in a warm, private daze. It was a good feeling, carrying an air of something almost rebellious about it. It made Rey forget the rest. 

"What did you imagine?" she asked, with a certain rasp to her voice that wasn’t there before.

He looked at her with those intense brown eyes of his, the reflection of dancing firelight in them like a netting of starlight. 

"Just you," he breathed and pressed one more kiss to her lips that made her entire body bloom with contentment, and Rey couldn’t help but smile.

"Shall we?" He asked, lightly tugging on her coat. Rey realized she still had her _ outerwear _ on, a situation that would be corrected soon enough. She nodded, and shrugged out of it herself, moving slightly away to give him some space to follow suit. 

Normally this would be the kind of thing that would be done together, she mused as she tugged down her boots. This time, however, they didn’t have the privilege of going slow, that much was clear without needing to say it out loud. And so they stripped in near silence, only accompanied by the sound of crackling fire and shuffling fabric as the pile of clothes strewn hastily on the chair grew in size, until they were left only in their underwear, slightly trembling in the chilly air. Rey had tried her best not to peek while undressing, whether from some completely misplaced sense of allowing personal space, or sheer awkwardness she did not know. Now, though, as they were basically on display for each other, it felt more appropriate, and her eyes wandered towards him, finding him kneeling on the bed, already looking at her, and—

He was intimidating in that masculine way that made her feel small, but also devastatingly enthralling to look at, and her gaze immediately shot to the smooth plains of alabaster skin, taking in the way his sculpted chest expanded as he breathed, and then travelled lower still to the outline of his black boxer briefs, where the outline of him, hard and expectant, was clearly visible through the thin layer of cotton. His eyes, hungry and just a little wild, rowed her body with similar admiration, though stopped noticeably higher up, and Rey suppressed the urge to cover her chest with her arms. It was fine, she had to remind herself. This was fine, there was nothing to be scared of. She trusted Ben. That was the reason why she’d invited him here in the first place. 

"Talk to me," she said, laying down on her bed. "Say something."

"Like what?" he asked cautiously, as he moved to kneel next to her. 

"Uhh—" It was a little difficult to focus, form words, even. She shivered from the cool air against her bare thighs, and Ben ran his palms over them in a soothing motion. "Tell me— tell me how you wanted this to happen. You had a plan, right?"

"I thought I did, but it quickly changed when you told me you’ve never done it before."

"Tell me anyway," she requested, closing her eyes. "Talk me through it."

Ben cleared his throat, and settled in-between her legs, and Rey found herself frozen like a deer in headlights. She understood what he had meant by not having the time to do it properly. Her body was beginning to warm up, but to take him fully, no matter how much she may be tempted to try, would be a— challenge under the best of circumstances. But they had to make do. Had to. 

"Well—" he began, whilst running both his hands up and down her thighs, slowly, causing a wave of anticipatory goosebumps to erupt over her entire body. "It was supposed to be just the two of us in the lodge. We would be drinking wine by the fireplace, complaining about our jobs, the usual. Then _ I _would tell you that a new position just opened up at FOC just last week, one perfectly suited for your qualifications. I’d tell you that a good word from me would be all you needed to get it right away, and you would be ecstatic from the news, telling me that you’ll join right away—"

Her eyes shot open. "I would _ never _—"

"Hush, this is my fantasy," Ben said, his wandering hands beginning to caress her inner thighs with feather-light touches. "Anyway, you’d be so excited by the prospect of us working together that you would kiss me. And then I’d fuck you right there on the couch."

"Ridiculous," Rey smiled, poking his side with her knee lightly. "It would never go down like that."

"Oh, yeah?" Ben cocked an eyebrow, and leaned down, covering her body with his, covering her smile with a deep, punishing kiss.

  
It was downright intoxicating, how good his skin felt against hers, and Rey found herself hooking her legs around his hips like it was second nature, like their bodies were made to do just this and nothing else. They pressed up against each other in near desperation, a frenzy that was mindless, near painful in its intensity, fueling each other’s mounting desire with each grind of their hips. Rey felt his length, rock hard against her damp underwear, only two paper thin pieces of fabric separating them from each other, and as he thrust up against her right there, shooting the first jolts of crystalline sharp sparks up her spine, she realized that she could get off by doing this alone, and so could he. But they had to go further, and fast. 

Ben broke the kiss and moved his head to kiss her neck, his breath burning hot against the sensitive skin as his hand slid underneath the waistband of her underwear. Rey had to keep herself from crying out, overwhelmed, consumed, set alight by him. In a brief flash of lucidity, she looked up at the cobweb-ridden ceiling, the crashing of shadows making it look alive, like a bubbling, breathing organism, and is struck her just how _ furious _she was at this decrepit place for taking something as special as this away from them in such a crude manner. His fingers were still on her, making her body dance to his compelling tune, the sparks of pleasure slowly turning into a steady, fiery stream and Rey found herself glaring at the ceiling, all the anger, and fear, and ecstasy slowly rising in a violent, crimson wave that made her cheeks grow warm and eyes wet.

"_ Do it _ ," she hissed through gritted teeth. " _ Do it now _."

In an instant, Ben’s head was up, and there was a moment of standstill as he gazed down on her. It was as if his face couldn’t settle between soft sympathy and delirious want, echoes of both still rippling on the surface as he sat up and turned away to rummage through the pile of clothing. Rey wasted no time and swiftly removed her last articles of clothing and tossed them aside, and now the only thing left was to wait for him, heart fluttering against her ribs like a caged bird. 

As she lay there, feeling more vulnerable and quite literally more exposed than ever, a chilling thought sparked up in her mind — what if the end of this ordeal also brings an end to their relationship, if it could even be called that? What if she’ll disappoint him, what if he won’t be able to look at her without being reminded of what had happened tonight? And Rey _ knew _ that these sorts of musings were born from a childhood riddled with loss and abandonment, but when Ben emerged, now in the process of ripping open a condom wrapper with his teeth, she couldn’t help but ask. 

"Do you think we’ll survive this?"

The bewildered, slightly condescending look he gave her whilst spitting out the corner of the packaging spoke volumes by itself, but she had to press further, because if tonight was about facing fear, then she had to go all the way. 

"What about the two of us? What happens after we get back?"

All her coherent thought momentarily hitched at the sight of him pulling down his boxer briefs with an admirable air of nonchalance and freeing his considerable length into the cool air, and she stared while he fiddled with putting on the protection.

"Do you believe in destiny, Rey?" he finally asked as he settled over her, retaking his position between her legs and lining himself up along her entrance. "I’m definitely starting to. So don’t be afraid."

Gently, his fingertips skimmed across her cheek, his touch a fleeting calm before a storm, and maybe she _ was _ crying now — it was hard to gauge with everything happening all at once. His mouth had caught hers once again, his hand had cupped her jaw, and Ben began to slowly work himself inside of her. The sensation was unexpectedly sharp, her body protesting the sudden invasion; Rey broke the kiss and muffled a groan against his shoulder, looping her hands around his neck, and he whispered soft encouragements into her hair, reminding her to breathe, to relax, to take every inch of him. And she did. After what felt like a long infinity and a split of a second at once, his hips were flush against hers, and Rey found herself pinned against the mattress by his wide frame. 

She caught herself wondering about all the different ways this could have gone had it not been for their detour through the woods — it would have certainly been some place more comfortable, her room, his, maybe even the suggested couch. But then it struck her that they probably wouldn't have gotten to that point at all. No, she remembered now, they were fighting all evening, which was something that came as naturally to them as doing this, and Ben—

Ben would have left the following morning, and neither would have contacted the other again. 

That route was clear as day now, playing right before her eyes as if it had actually happened. Rey found herself pulling him closer, dread from something that had so nearly come to pass causing her hand to submerge into silky curls of raven hair. It was a vain effort to lose herself in him entirely, lose herself in the moment, but one that was welcomed all the same.

"For what it's worth," Ben spoke up softly as began to move inside of her, "all I really wanted from this weekend was to spend time with you. That’s the only thing I ever want. You."

If there had been an external reason for why they were doing this, it was all but forgotten by now, all coherent thought fading into a shadowy murk while their fire burned bright. Each snap of his hips against hers sent a new wave of low reverberations through her entire body, coaxing out sounds that Rey didn’t know she was capable of making — whimpers, and mewls, and moans, and she could feel him _ trembling _with effort to reign it in. She wasn’t thinking about where they were anymore, or how they had gotten there, wasn’t noticing the cobwebs or feeling the cold, because none of it mattered; they were lost in each other’s arms, and that was enough. 

Slowly, the dim burn of him stretching her out gave way to a different one altogether, a warmth blooming at the pit of her stomach, exploding to an inferno as he sneaked his hand down to where their bodies joined, his nimble fingers adding to the flurry of already overwhelming sensations. Now it was Rey's turn to babble a stream of encouragement to him, urging him that it was okay, she wanted this, wanted him, deeper and harder.

She could sense it approaching, a dawning light at the horizon, and Rey chased after with a single-minded focus, bucking her hips against him, feeling him groan against her neck, his pleasure spiking hers; if they weren’t meant to survive the night, at least they’ll go out in their own private blaze of glory. They kissed each other senselessly, frantically, drinking each other’s moans with shameless greed. 

And then, with a particularly vicious thrust that hit her so deep she was seeing stars, Rey was gone, falling in the safety of his arms as she writhed against him, milking the vestiges of her razor-sharp peak with a helpless cry. With a curse against her neck, Ben was meeting her there, too, riding it out until all the ugliness of this situation, of the location, of everything that had happened washed away to reveal a clear, white shore of bliss.

Awareness returned slowly, and the realization of how quickly they had given in began to seep through the cracks of their daze, but Rey couldn’t find it within her to linger on that. Her body was sated, blood in her veins buzzing with the after-shocks, and she found herself clinging to him as he collapsed on top of her, panting against her neck, completely shaken up. 

A loud click came from the door, disrupting the fragile peace and forcing their attention to snap towards it. They waited a while, tense and listening for any further noise, but moments passed and nothing more came of it.

A shadow of something resembling subdued apprehension crossed his flushed face. "It sounded like—"

"Yeah," Rey huffed, still winded, and eyes now glued to the windows in search for any signs of movement outside. There weren't any, but there was something _ different _ about the view, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on as of yet. "We should probably go check it out."

"Okay, just—" He let his head drop on her chest. "Give me a second to recover."

She went back to stroking his hair, now a little damp from sweat, perfectly happy to have an excuse not to move, and they spent a couple more minutes in the comforting void of each other. But it wasn’t the same anymore, and they gave up pretending that they were out of the woods — both literally and figuratively — soon enough.

The pair got dressed in silence. For a moment there, it had seemed like everything would be okay between them, even better than okay, but now—

They had done what was asked, and Rey didn’t want to inquire, didn’t want to _ know _, so she concentrated on tracking down some scattered pieces of clothing and putting them on without saying a thing.

Soon enough, they found themselves in front of the door, with Rey staring at the doorknob. She inhaled, and before fear had a chance to get the better of her, turned it. The door opened with the tiniest push, behind which lay the forest, and the night, and freedom. 

They stepped over the threshold quickly, not willing to remain inside even a second longer than necessary, and it was as if a spell had been lifted. The air had returned to its previous self, having lost its odd, stale quality, and Rey sighed at the feeling of a fresh breeze entering her lungs, cleansing it from the morbidity of the night. There was something different about the forest itself, too. It was the sky, she realized, all the purple tint lost and back to its regular dusky blue self, with a myriad of stars glistening over the treetops. And there, peeking through the canopy not that far from where they were—

The watchtower, with its side illuminated by the unmistakable, warm lights of the lodge. Their guiding beacon home, looming there with downright annoying confidence, as if it had been there all along even though Rey _ knew _ that wasn’t the case. They had passed right by the place where it stood not that long ago, and there had been nothing there but more forest. But it didn’t matter now. Deciphering the logic behind tonight’s events seemed like a futile effort. The important part was that in less than an hour they would be returning to a place with a hot bath and a soft bed. To safety.

There was just one thing left to clarify first. 

Ben was standing by her side, also looking at the watchtower with an indecipherable look on his face. Rey caught his gaze, an unspoken question burning in her eyes.

The leaves rustled in a languid wind, the stars themselves seemed to sing, and Ben smiled at her, lacing his fingers with hers. Rey wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words, so she simply smiled back, warmed by a soft realization that everything would, indeed, be okay. 

**Author's Note:**

> **[La Danse Macabre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre)** \- also called the Dance of Death, an artistic genre of allegory dating back to the Medieval Ages that postulates: no matter one's station in life, death unites us all.
> 
> Happy Halloween, everyone! ❤️  
You can find me on [Tumblr](https://themoonmoths.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> If you liked it, remember to feed the author by leaving kudos and/or comments! :)


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